An early/mid 1960’s concept model of an interplanetary spacecraft using a nuclear fusion powerplant. Back then there was a LOT of faith in the idea of fusion reactors being just around the corner. One very obvious design flaw? No radiators. Any internal-fusion system (or internal-fission, for that matter) would need *vast* radiator surface area.
Details on the photo are unavailable. I originally downloaded this image from the GRIN (Great Images in NASA) website, which has now been closed in favor of a Flickr account that is difficult to search. Feh. If you want the full-rez version *another* Flickr account has it HERE.
Looks like they crashed the *cockpit* into the telegraph pole. All kinds of possible reasons why that might have happened, but one part of an aircraft you really don’t want trashed in flight is the cockpit.
UPDATE: that headline? She is wrong. The Airlander 10 didn’t hit a telegraph pole… it hit the friggen *Earth.*
Last thirty or so years, “carbon fiber” has seemingly become the answer to everything in the world of structures. Some months ago I saw “carbon fiber” reading glasses on sale at a pharmacy; on close inspection, it turns out that it *really* *did* have carbon fiber cloth. On even closer inspection, that cloth was a single layer, a strip about 1/8″ wide that was simply glued onto the exterior of a standard cheap plastic frame. I was unimpressed.
Aerospace and automotive engineers are integrating carbon fiber into everything to reduced mass. In aircraft and spacecraft that’s vitally important; in autos, less so. Sure, lower mass cars are good, but sometime the materials you’re replacing have other properties that make them better. Carbon fiber is strong, but it’s not ductile…. a steel or aluminum auto body would bend and crumple in a crash, where a carbon body would simply shatter. Additionally, broken carbon fiber spits out tiny little shards that are skin-irritant, eye- and lung-damaging. (This I discovered to my personal dismay many years ago at United Tech in California, with the result that all the clothes I was wearing at the time wound up in the trash.)
And for all carbon fibers strength in tension… it’s not worth diddly in compression. Behold:
Note that after the second item goes under the press, the people working near it are suddenly wearing respirators.
The carbon fiber fails fast here. This did not surprise me. The exact mechanism of failure, though, was a little surprising. It’s remarkably uniform.
A NASA-Langley film from decades ago, a collection of quick clips from wind tunnel tests. These show models designed to bend and flex somewhat like their larger real-world kin, and then they are massively overstressed to the point of failure. If doing a spit-take was a real thing rather than a Hollywood trope, I woulda spit-took at about 1:20, when a Boeing 2707-100 supersonic transport model is shown being turned into a damn porpoise in the wind tunnel (instead, I just blurted out “holy shee-it” and laughed for a while). About 15 seconds later it (or a model similar to it) is turned into so much confetti. I assume the wind tunnel had some sort of shrapnel-filter to keep the junk from being sucked into the blades…
The Ryan XV-5A Vertifan was a 1960’s VTOL aircraft that was given considerable testing and proved to be reasonably successful, yet it was not chosen to be put into production. he video below (a couple different versions of it) show the XV-5A being put through its paces. It’s shown to be a remarkably nimble and stable platform. Also shown are numerous pieces of concept art, the XV-5A being used in a rescue capacity. Interestingly, the idea presented was to send the VTOL right alongside strike aircraft so that it would be right there on the scene ready to collect any pilots who happen to get shot down during the mission.
The XV-5A used largish fans embedded win the nose and wings to provide vertical thrust; the fans were driven by the exhaust from the jet engines. This is not a particularly elegant solution, unlike the Harrier with its fully integrated single engine system, but the fan approach would provide both better fuel efficiency during hover and lower jet velocity compared to something like the Harrier or the F-35. This would mean that the vertical thrust would tear up the dirt or deck plating a whole lot less.
One wonders how well the XV-5A would perform today. It would have the benefit of better engines and better materials, meaning more thrust at lower fuel consumption, in an aircraft that weighs less. And perhaps more importantly, modern avionics and computerized controls would make this plane much more stable, controllable and safe in hover.
…the German government plans to bring back its Cold War-era requirement for people to stockpile enough food for 10 days and enough drinking water for five, as well as medicine and other supplies. The government is also planning to boost security by bringing in a nationwide alarm system.
I don’t know if it has been apparent the past few months via changes in blogging, but I’ve been swamped with work. This is rather something of a change of pace… starting in June I’ve been working on a contract job that has provided real work and a real paycheck, something I’ve been devoid of lo these many years. It’s nothing classified, but I’d as soon not go into too much detail just now. In short, I am making a handful of CAD models that will be used to make physical models. This is work I’ve done for years for the likes of Fantastic Plastic. But rather than models that require small cardboard boxes to ship, these will require large intermodal shipping containers, and a substantial number of them, to send where they’re going.
You know, these things:
This has turned out to be rather challenging and labor intensive (oddly, something 50 feet long requires different engineering and level of detail than something 5 inches long) , to the point where it has shoved aside other projects I was working on, even some paid projects. That’s not so good, of course. But it’s real work with a real paycheck, and if the clients are happy, and so far they seem to be, it promises some *more* work.
So, perhaps less in-depth snark on the blog for a while.
Do you suffer the heartache of having just way too much 5.56mm ammo, with no way to burn through it all? Empty Shell, LLC, has the answer! Their XM556 Microgun is the hand-held minigun you’ve been waiting for (assuming you are a government agency, because unlike civilians, government agencies can *always* be trusted).
Rate of fire: up to 4,000 rounds/minute.
This thing *really* needs to be mounted on a steadicam harness.
Now, what *practical* applications are there for a weapon like this? A similar gun, the XM214, was built in prototype form by General Electric. It never found much use outside Hollywood (T2 and Predator, a few others), largely because the 5.56 round, despite what the media says, is not a particularly high power round, and the range is distinctly limited. So since the XM556 has even shorter barrels, meaning lower muzzle velocity and higher dispersion, it’ll be even less accurate. So, what can it be used for?
Point defense of high value targets. Mounted on escort vehicles alongside VIP limos and the like. Mounted behind gates at military bases and nuclear power plants.
A micro-CIWS. Attach to a small millimeter-wave radar and blow mortar and drones out of the sky.
Former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonette wrote a book about whacking Osama Bin Laden. But he didn’t submit the book for review by The Authorities, and was therefore in violation of non-disclosure agreements. As a result, he has to pay back seven *million* dollars and forfeit all future profits, royalties, film rights and speaking fees.
So on the one hand, it seems like if you are a government employee and you break the rules, you can get thwacked *really* hard.
An autistic Native American kid was spat on, yelled at and struck because of the political message of his shirt. Under other circumstances, this would be a clear case of a “hate crime.” Will that be the case here? Let’s watch!
The actual narrative of events, who threw the first punch, differs between the two people involved. But given that the other guy is the Executive Director of the White House Initiative of American Indian and Alaska Native Education, you’d at least *think* that one of them would have had the maturity to not get in a fight over a shirt. but then… it’s *this* White House.
Just wait till the *next* administration. Hoo boy.
